Falling Out
by Perhapsormaybe
Summary: Cindy and Jimmy are on the verge of being together. They're closer than ever, in fact. But it seems to be taking a toll on both of them, as well as their friends. In fact, maybe their friends think they'd be better off without each other...
1. Chapter 1

-1

The Candy bar was as loud an packed as usual, if not possibly a bit more, than on a typical Saturday. An attractive blonde sat in a booth in the corner, her head in her hands as she fought the urge to fall asleep.

"Cindy?" a young black girl, about the same age as Cindy, with a head full of braids and kind brown eyes called. She received no answer. "Hey, girlfriend? …." The girl, Libby, studied her best friend for a moment. _Not __**another**__ late night talking to Neutron online…_ Libby rolled her eyes, knowing she was right. "Hey, Cindy! I just saw Jimmy walk in with Betty Quinlan!"

That got her attention. The vivid green eyes immediately snapped open before narrowing to slits. She looked around frantically. "He wouldn't! He ..he…he couldn't!…I am going to kill her -- um…him."

"Relax," Libby said, sliding into the booth beside Cindy. "Jimmy hasn't shown up yet. Is he supposed to meet you here?" Cindy gave a weak nod. "How late were you up on the computer last night?"

Cindy looked thoughtful for a moment, calculating. "Let's see….the morning show with Remus Philgin was on..so…"

"That doesn't come on until seven in the morning!" Libby cried incredulously. "Girl, this relationship is taking a major toll on you. You've got bags under your eyes." To prove her point, Libby pulled a compact from her pocket and slid it towards Cindy. Cindy scooped it up and popped it open, groaning when she saw her reflection.

"Don't suppose you've got anything with you to treat it?"

"I'm _eleven_, Cindy…I don't expect to have bags under my eyes at this age. Maybe you're just not ready for a boyfriend?"

"Neutron's not my boyfriend!" Cindy snapped.

"Could have fooled me," Libby said with a smirk. "Let's see, you've held hands," she held up a finger, counting the 'evidence', "you've technically been on a few days, you stay up all night talking to him…and let's not forget…..you _**kissed**_!"

"B..but…but that was…"

"What? Jimmy was running an experiment on kissing?"

"I dunno…maybe.."

"If that was an experiment, it was an experiment to see if you'd like it or not," Libby said simply, crossing her arms and giving her friend a worried look. "Look, maybe you and Jimmy should---"

"She and I should what?" The voice was free of any form of suspicion, but Libby still tensed up when she heard it. She turned and came face-to-face with James Isaac Neutron, Retroville's own boy genius. Libby fought down the instinct to groan, and instead jumped to her feet.

"Should…uh…come over some time! Yeah, you can bring Sheen and Carl, and…"

"Or maybe I could just bring Sheen?" Jimmy suggested with a smirk, quickly stealing the place that Libby had just vacated. Libby couldn't help but notice that Cindy looked wide awake now.

Libby didn't say another word. She left them in peace, crossing over to where Carl and Sheen were animatedly arguing over whether llamas or UltraLord were better.

"Hey," Jimmy said with a smile. "Sorry I'm late - Goddard needed some last minute repairs."

"Late? Late? Ha, barely even noticed!" Cindy said with a fake laugh, checking her watch. "Besides, I was only waiting since the Candy Bar opened…"

Jimmy gave her a bewildered look. "But Cindy, I said we should meet at twelve. The Candy Bar opens at nine…you've been waiting three hours?"

Cindy shrugged. "Didn't have anything better to do." Jimmy frowned as he studied her face. She was still very pretty, but the bags under her eyes marred it a bit. It only added to the guilt he already felt - he'd been late because he was working on another new invention.

"So, what's the invention this time?"

"Huh?" For a wild moment, Jimmy thought Cindy had developed the ability to read his thoughts. As though she were really doing so, she pointed to his hand - he still had a little bit of grease there. "Oh," Jimmy said softly, grabbing a napkin from the dispenser beside them and wiping it away. "Nothing too much….I'm afraid I'd rather not talk about it until it's done."

"You've been keeping all your inventions secret from me lately, Neutr---Jimmy," Cindy said sourly.

Jimmy gave a shrug, but said nothing. The truth of the matter was, he liked the place he and Cindy were at right now, and was still a bit afraid that a backfired invention would toss them back to where they had been just a month ago.

"Another lame invention? Geez, Neutron…hope this one doesn't shrink the whole town, or invite aliens to come eat us…" Thankfully, it was not Cindy's voice making the comments. Jimmy glanced up to see Nick standing over them, and inwardly groaned. He was still not sure if Cindy was over her crush on Nick, and if she wasn't…well, there was always the chance she'd agree with Nick, just to impress him.

"Back off," Cindy's voice was a poisonous warning, reminiscent of a rattlesnake's rattle, warning that she was ready to strike. "Just leave him alone, Nick."

Nick looked amused. "So, what, Cindy, you and nerd boy going out now?"

Cindy didn't answer, instead she rose from the booth and struck a defensive stance. "I told you to leave him alone. Get going, or I'll do to you what I kept threatening to do to him."

"It's cool, it's cool," Nick said, running a hand through his hair, seeming a bit thrown off - no girl had ever threatened him before. "Have fun on your date," he said, walking off.

"It's not a date!" Cindy and Jimmy said in unison. Still fuming, Cindy got back into her seat.

"I hate that creep," she declared, gesticulating to Sam so that he'd know that they were ready to order.

"Uh..yeah, me too," said Jimmy, more than a bit bewildered by the encounter. Bewildered, but happy. Cindy was definitely over Nick. But Jimmy was now at a loss for words. "Cindy?"

"Hmm?"

"Thanks," he said nervously, fidgeting a bit. The urge to kiss her came on again, but unlike the time after the faked alien story when Libby had gone a little overboard with her gossip segment, he managed to fight it down. They had never talked about it. He was still waiting for her to bring it up, and he wasn't going to try to do it again unless he was absolutely sure she'd let him. Suddenly, an idea came upon him. "Cindy?"

"Yeah?"

"After we're done here…would you like to go to the lab? I'd like to show you what I'm working on."

Cindy brightened quite a bit at that. "I'd love to," she said as Sam came by to take their orders. _Maybe it's not another kiss_, she thought, _but it's a step in the right direction…_


	2. Diss Numbers 1 and 2

Jimmy held out a hair to his DNA scanner, and he and Cindy waited a moment as Vox processed it. The door swung open after a second, admitting the two preteens to the lab. Goddard looked up hopefully for a moment, but seemed to shrivel back when he saw Cindy.

The robot had never had a problem with Cindy before, but he did recognize that Jimmy wasn't spending as much time with him as he used to. Goddard was programmed with considerable reasoning skills, and so had correctly deduced that it was because of Cindy. However, he didn't truly have ill will towards her. Just a bit of jealousy.

"Hi, Goddard," Cindy said, giving him a quick pat on the head. Goddard whined, wishing she'd keep petting him. He was glad for the attention. But now it was Jimmy stealing the attention away from Goddard.

"All right, Cindy, this is it," he indicated what looked like a tiny metal box. Cindy looked unimpressed, but fought her instinct to start making mean hearted jokes.

"All right, then…what is it, Neutron?"

Jimmy frowned. "Well, it's not done yet - it's still kind of unstable. But it's an invention to make people tell the truth."

"Oh. But what about truth serum? Wouldn't that work better?"

"Sodium Penthotal?" Jimmy shook his head. "not as effective as the movies would have you believe. Actually, it can cause lose of inhibition, so it might be easier to get the truth out of someone, but it won't actually make them tell the truth. It will make you open to more suggestion, but like I said…it doesn't actually give the effects of what a true truth serum might, if it were developed."

"Well, what's the point? Why do you want to make people tell the truth?"

"Oh, you know…teachers…parents when they don't have any reason better to keep you from doing something other than "because I said so", …there's a lot of uses for it. There's always using it on politicians right before they develop their platforms. Get to know what kind of person we're really allowing to power."

"I dunno, Jimmy," Cindy frowned, wondering if Jimmy had any intentions of using it on her. "Some times you need to lie."

"Oh, I know," Jimmy nodded vigorously, "I don't intend to use this on any of our friends. I still remember Libby's gossip segment too well to want to learn more secrets about all of them."

Cindy nodded solemnly, as both reflected back on that time, just a little while ago. "Hey, Cindy?" Jimmy took a step closer to her, and took a deep breath. "You know, it's been a while since we tried to kiss again, and well…science states you should repeat your experiment to make sure that --"

Cindy hugged him tightly, throwing Jimmy nearly completely off balance.

They moved closer together, their lips maybe a quarter of an inch away….when suddenly the doorbell of the club house rang.

"JIMMY!!!!" The voice was grating, but also familiar. "JIMMY! Ultra Lord marathon! Canceled!"

Jimmy went over to the control panel, about to press the button that would give Sheen access to his lab, but Cindy grabbed his hand. "Maybe just this once we could go uninterrupted? Please?" She looked at him hopefully, biting her lip, positive he'd go to his friend's aid.

"I dunno…Ultra Lord means a lot to Sheen," Jimmy said softly, glancing towards the door.

"Please, Jimmy?" Cindy asked softly. "For me?"

That did it. Jimmy remained quiet, and took his hand away from the panel. Sheen could not hear them from outside. He continued to bang on the door for a while, shouting until a normal person would have been hoarse. But Sheen was not normal.

"Okay..guess he's not here," Sheen's voice was much lower now, but still loud and piercing enough to make it down to Jimmy's ears. Jimmy frowned as Sheen added "guess I'll just go to someone else for help….it's kinda weird, though…" Jimmy flipped a switch on his computer board and caught a visual of Sheen walking away. He was about ready to race after his friend and apologize when Cindy grabbed his hand. She smiled mischievously.

"Well, where were we?" Jimmy smiled in spite of himself and pulled her closer.

"I believe this is about right…"

* * *

"LIBBY! LIBBY!!!" Sheen was on his knees, pounding on her front door as he screamed. "LIBBY! DON'T TELL ME YOU'D ABANDON ULTRA LORD, TOO!"

Libby sighed and opened the door. Sheen had his eyes closed at that moment, and tried to bang against the door again, but as it wasn't there he slipped and fell forward, landing at Libby's feet. "Sheen, what are you doing?"

"Hey, Libbalicious, I gotta say, you even look great from this angle!" Sheen smiled sweetly and got to his feet. Then he dropped back down to his knees. "THEY CANCELED THE ULTRA LORD MARATHON!" He wrapped his arms around Libby's legs and sobbed.

Libby both pitied the boy and wished he would knock it off - the door was still open and any one who happened to drive or walk by at that moment would be able to see them. "Sheen, why don't you come in?" Libby said, ushering him inside without waiting for an answer and slamming the door shut behind him. She gestured him over to the couch and took the seat behind him. "Now…isn't Ultra Lord still on?"

"Well…yeah. But now there's no Saturday marathon," Sheen said sadly. "Now what am I supposed to do on Saturdays! What's there to look forward to?"

"Clean air?"

"Huh?" Sheen looked confused.

"Hanging out with friends?"

"But I do that at school…" Sheen whined.

Libby thought for a moment. "That you don't have school on Saturdays?" she suggested.

Sheen considered it. "Hmm…good point! Thanks, Libs, guess it's true what they say 'every girly cloud of pink has a purple lining'."

Libby looked utterly confused. "Okaaaay…well, that's actually 'every cloud has a silver lining', Sheen."

"But silver is still kinda girly…besides, Ultra Lord's costume is purple," He indicated Ultra Lord on his t-shirt. Libby decided not to press it, a bit afraid of Sheen cracking up again. "Thanks, Libby. It's great that when Jimmy's away I can count on you."

"What do you mean 'away'?" Libby's eyes narrowed. "boy's got a date with Cindy today. At the lab."

"But I went to the lab," Sheen protested, "I didn't get an answer!"

Libby looked thoughtful. "Sheen, …I think you've been dissed," she glanced at the clock on top of the mantle and jumped to her feet. "Oh, no…_**I**_'ve been dissed, too! Cindy said she was coming over here at four, and it's five already! Oh no she didn't!"

"Well, it looks like oh yeah, she did," Sheen offered, trying to be helpful. Libby ignored him. "Well, as your boyfriend do you want me to defend your honor?"

"No, but I think those two geniuses are bein' real idiots," Libby sat back down, her arms crossed and an unbecoming glare on her face. "I can't believe this. I've been her best friend since Pre-K, and this is how she treats me! Up and leaves me to be with some stupid genius…"

"Aren't 'stupid' and 'genius' contradicting?" Sheen asked. When Libby didn't answer, he rushed on, "Because if they're actually the same word, then that makes me just as smart as Jimmy, according to the things everybody says about me…"

"Sheen, that's not…" Libby softened, "Sheen, you're not stupid. But that's not what this is about. We're their friends. Aren't you upset?"

Sheen thought for a moment. "Well, yes. This is the first time Jimmy hasn't been there for Ultra Lord. …Or for me. I don't like being 'dissed'. But maybe they have a good reason?"

"Their only reason is they want to make googly eyes at each other," Libby huffed, allowing herself to sink back into the back of the couch, her legs dangling a few inches off the floor. She started swinging them back and forth, kicking out at the coffee table.

"Well, maybe," Sheen said, his will to defend Jimmy suddenly waning. "I don't know. Maybe we should ask them about it?"

Libby considered this for a moment. "All right, then. We'll ask them tomorrow. But if they lie to us, we do something about it, okay?"

"Okay. But they wouldn't lie to us. They're our best friends." Sheen said confidently, standing up. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go write a thousand letters to the network that plays Ultra Lord."

"But Sheen, it hasn't even been cancelled!"

"This is the first step before that happens," Sheen said darkly, before exiting without another word. Libby rolled her eyes, but smiled in spite of herself. At least Sheen was fully trustworthy, at least in terms of meaning well.

**Author's Note: **I know what Jimmy did seems uncharacteristic for him, but people can be idiots (even geniuses) when the other sex knows exactly what to do to get them wrapped around their finger. Plus he still feels guilty over Cindy losing sleep over him, and would be all the more interested in doing what she wants to do as a way of apologizing.


End file.
